In prior art television receivers a MPU is utilized to control all of the functions, e.g. color, synchronization, etc. An additional chip, which contains all of the OSD circuitry, is coupled to the MPU and provides any on screen displays. Each prior art OSD chip is designed to operate with a specific television receiver, that is it operates at one specific standard. Typical world standards in the television industry include NTSC, PAL, and SECAM. Further, there are many variations on each of these standards, referred to herein as multi-definitions, which multi-definitions include: improved definition TV (IDTV); extended definition TV (EDTV); high definition TV (HDTV); as well as interlace scan and progressive scan.
Because each chip operates on only one standard, a large variety of chips must be manufacture. Also, many functions that can be performed by the MPU must be duplicated in the OSD chip and, consequently, much additional hardware is required thereby raising the cost and size of the OSD chip.
One of the major problems that arises in a multistandard TV is the provision of a multiplicity of clock and synchronizing frequencies. Generally, a plurality of oscillators must be provided, each of which can be synchronized to a different received television signal. The plurality of oscillators requires a great amount of space and expense.